Dive Brief:

• Rashida La Lande will be leaving her role as Kraft Heinz’s executive vice president and chief legal officer effective immediately, and will continue advising the food company during a transition period to complete “certain strategic projects,” the company said Monday in regulatory filing. She joined the company in early 2018.
• La Lande will seek a new professional role in New York City, where her family lives, citing frequent travel for Kraft Heinz. The company maintains dual headquarters in Chicago and Pittsburgh. 
• Kraft Heinz has named its International General Council, Prash Akkapeddi, as interim global GC, according to a company spokesman.

Dive Insight:

La Lande’s resignation, announced Monday, comes as she seeks a role in New York, where her family lives. La Lande’s departure “is not due to any disagreement or dispute with the Company,” Kaft Heinz said in a regulatory filing.

Kraft Heinz’s international general counsel, London-based Prash Akkapeddi, will become interim GC, reporting to Chief Executive Carlos Abrams-Rivera. Like La Lande, Akkapeddi is also an alumni of the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and of Columbia Law.

“Her decision to step down is rooted in her desire to spend more time with her family, as she lives in New York City and currently travels often to Kraft Heinz co-headquarters in Chicago and Pittsburgh,” Kraft Heinz spokesman Alex Abraham said in an email to Legal Dive. “We thank Rashida for her many accomplishments during her time at Kraft Heinz. While she will no longer be at the Company, Rashida’s positive impact will be felt for years to come.” 

La Lande went in-house as Kraft Heinz GC and corporate secretary in Jan. 2018 after 11 years at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where she specialized in M&A and private equity transactions. The New York City native received her J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1998 after graduating from Harvard University.

Moving to the GC role from a large law firm exercised different legal and critical thinking skills, La Lande told her alma mater, Columbia Law School, for a 2019 profile article.

“You have to be able to really think like a businessperson and advise and consult like a businessperson,” she said. “It is legal advice that you’re giving — but with a deep understanding of the constraints that impact the business.” 

Kraft Heinz brands include Oscar Mayer wieners, Kool-Aid and Maxwell House coffee. The company was formed with the $45 billion merger of Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz in 2015.